History of Addison county Vermont, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 76

Author: Smith, H. P. (Henry Perry), 1839-1925. 1n
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y., D. Mason & co.
Number of Pages: 988

USA > Vermont > Addison County > History of Addison county Vermont, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 76

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The Congregational Church was organized August 7, 1804, and Rev. Henry Boynton installed as first pastor during the following year ; but he preached only a few times. The society is now represented in town by but a handful of members, and holds no services at present.

The Society of Friends was organized by Joseph Chase, and a meeting- house erected in 1812. In 1858 it was sold. In 1871 the present small struct- ure was erected at South Starksboro, costing in the neighborhood of a thou- sand dollars. The society now has twenty or more members, the services being conducted by laymen.

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CHAPTER XXXIV.

HISTORY OF THE CITY OF VERGENNES.

F 'OR many years Vergennes has been waiting to see her history in print, and the question has often been asked, Why is not the history of Vergennes written ? Most of the towns about us have one, but not Vergennes. Even the indefatigable Miss Hemenway failed to procure one. Any one who has at- tempted to gather up any fragments of her history knows that the answers to this question are numerous. The territory of Vergennes had been inhabited by white men twenty-two years before she had a corporate existence. A frac- tion of three towns, her records were not her own, and the records of Ferris- burgh, which gave her the largest territory of any of the three, were burned in October, 1785. The men who made the history of Vergennes had no leisure or inclination to write out for posterity the description of the scenes and events that transpired here. The population of Vergennes has been so changeable that tradition cannot do much for us, and only by the most patient searching of the few records left can we form an idea of her condition in the past, of her business interests, or the character of her people; even the names of the men who did most for the founding and settlement of our city are passing out of the memory of the present generation. To recall some of those names and some of the scenes in which they were actors is the most that we can do now; and we only repeat that we cannot present a picture of their daily life in their busi- ness and social relations.

It should be remembered that the history of Vergennes must be different from that of a farming town. A different class of people located here. Their pursuits and avocations were different. With only 1,200 acres in her territory, the farming interest within her limits was of small moment. Those who ex- pected to live by farming settled elsewhere. Manufacturers, merchants, and professional men, with such mechanics and laborers as were needed, composed her population. Of course, when the numerous ready-made tools, building materials, vehicles, clothing, and other conveniences now found in our stores had to be made by hand in mechanics' shops, a large number of mechanics were needed ; but as a class they have left but little record of their doings or of their families.

The records of real estate conveyances and of town officers elected, with very slight traditional recollections, form the only basis for a statement of inci- dents and events in the forgotten past. A complete history of Vergennes can never be given, because much of it is lost beyond recall. A few disconnected facts may be gleaned, but their narration must read something like a chrono- logical table or a page in the dictionary.

During the French War, from 1755 to '60, many soldiers and scouting par-

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ties passed from the older New England States to and from Canada. There were two routes, one up the Connecticut River and thence to Lake Memphra- magog ; the other in the vicinity of Vergennes. To cross Otter Creek, over which there were no bridges or ferries, made it desirable to find a place where they could ford the stream, and doubtless some kind of a trail leading to the fords was known to them, or the bearings from the mountains enabled them to find their way through an unbroken forest of a dense and heavy growth, with neither red man nor white man found to break this awful solitude of nature. Noah Porter, grandfather of George W. Porter, of Ferrisburgh, once said that he crossed Otter Creek, in one of those years, with a scouting party on the rocks at the head of the falls (the deep channels have since been blasted out), and he and his party were so impressed with the wild and chaotic features of the scene that they spent some time in viewing the falls. He said the west channel appeared very small and was so filled with floodwood you would hardly notice there was any channel there ; that there were several beaver houses built on the floodwood.

The reports of soldiers aroused the love of adventure incident to pioneer life, and an excitement was manifested in Connecticut and Massachusetts and on the banks of the lower Hudson, to secure an interest in the cheap lands and rich hunting grounds of the northern wilderness. In 1761 sixty towns were chartered in Vermont. New Haven's charter bore date November 2, 1761 ; Panton, November 3, 1761, and Ferrisburgh, June 25, 1762. These are the three towns from which Vergennes was taken. New Haven and Panton were chartered to citizens of Litchfield county, Conn., and Ferrisburgh to men of Dutchess county, N. Y.

In 1762 Deacon Ebenezer Frisbie, of Sharon, Conn., assisted by John Clothier, Isaac Peck, and Abram Jackson, surveyed the lines of the town of Panton. Beginning at a walnut tree on the bank of Otter Creek (about two rods above the west end of the bridge over Otter Creek) and running due west to the lake; thence six miles south ; thence seven miles east; thence down Ot- ter Creek to the place of beginning. They were paid for fifty-three days' service.

This first surveying party that was ever in Vergennes found that the dis- tance to the lake was less than seven miles; and it also appears that the north line run by them was about eighteen rods south of the south line of Ferrisburgh, leaving a strip between the two towns not covered by any charter.

In October, 1788, the Legislature of Vermont granted to Whitelaw, Savage, and Coit the three islands near the falls, as land not heretofore chartered. By agreement the line between Panton and Ferrisburgh was fixed to run from the corner of New Haven just above the east end of the bridge, and a broken can- non was placed in a cleft in the rocks to mark the spot, and is there now, al- though buried out of sight.

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HISTORY OF ADDISON COUNTY.

In running six miles south they covered a large tract claimed by Addison, and, as Addison's charter ante-dated Panton's, after a long controversy it was settled by compromise, Addison holding the territory claimed. Probably noth- ing was done in 1763 toward settlement. Ferrisburgh was also surveyed in 1762 by Benjamin Ferriss and David Ferriss, but no settlement effected.

It appears from the proprietors' records of Panton that in 1764 James Nich- ols, Griswold Barnes, David Vallance, Timothy Harris, Joseph Wood, Captain Samuel Elmore, William Patterson, Eliphalet Smith, Zadock Everest, Amos Chipman, Samuel Chipman, etc., to the number of fifteen, did go to Panton and do some work on fifteen rights.

The statement in Swift's History of Middlebury gives from tradition the fol- lowing version, fixing the date two years later than the record. He says that "Fifteen young men from Salisbury, Connecticut, and adjoining towns, started for a home in this region, with some tools and effects in a cart drawn by oxen. They followed Otter Creek from its source to Sutherland Falls, cutting a way for their cart as best they could. They found no house north of Manchester. At Sutherland's Falls they dug out a large canoe and put in it their freight, and some of them as rowers started with it, towing their cart behind the canoe. The rest of the party, with the oxen, went on by land. John Chipman stopped at Middlebury; the others came on, drawing their canoe with their oxen around all the falls. Some of the party stopped to prepare a place for permanent settle- ment in New Haven above the falls, the others went on and settled on the lake shore. They all returned to Connecticut in the fall.

"The charter required that five acres should be cleared and a house built not less than eighteen feet square on each right within five years from date of charter ; but this was not accomplished. In accordance with a contract made with the proprietors, Isaac Peck, Jeremiah Griswold, and Daniel Barnes began to build a saw-mill at the falls in the fall of 1764, but did not complete it that year. In December, 1765, a bargain was made with Joseph Pangborn to build a good grist-mill at the falls, to do good service by the first of May, 1767, for which he was to have a water power and fifty acres of land adjoining, and the mill when built. It is uncertain whether this mill was built by him, for in the summer of 1766 Colonel Reid took possession forcibly of all the property about the falls, claiming under a New York grant all the land on Otter Creek, three miles wide from the mouth to Sutherland's Falls. An entry in the Pan- ton records makes it certain that Reid came in 1766, for at a meeting on the third Tuesday in November, 1766, they recite that Colonel Reid had taken pos- session of the mill at the falls which they had built.

"In 1769 the proprietors of Panton revoked the grant of a mill lot and water power to the men who built the saw-mill, because they had not com- pleted it by the time agreed, and had allowed Colonel Reid to wrest it from their possession. In Slade's State Papers, pages 30, 31, and 33, in the copy of

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Governor Tryon's letter, and answer of committee to same, signed by Ethan Allen, clerk for said committee, and dated August 25, 1772, it appears that ' more than three years previous Colonel Reid took possession of the saw-mill, one hundred and thirty saw-logs, and fourteen thousand feet of pine boards, and did at that same time extend his force, terrors and threats into the town of New Haven, and so terrified the inhabitants (about twelve in number), that they left their possessions and farms to the conquerors, and escaped with the skin of their teeth.' The committee's letter also states that 'not long after, the original proprietors of said mill did re-enter and take possession thereof, but was a second time attacked by Colonel Reid's stewart with a number of armed men and obliged to quit the premises again,' and the letter admits that not long previous to the date of the letter, a small party did dis- possess Colonel Reid of the saw-mill, which seems to have ended the contro- versy."

The romance and embellishment of this affair, which may be true, is more interesting than the naked facts. It is said that Colonel Reid came here with a few men - Donald McIntosh, a native of Scotland, who was in the battle of Culloden, being foreman - and took possession of the mill; entered the house of Joshua Hyde, a settler in New Haven, just above the falls, and took him prisoner, and crossed the creek; on landing he managed to escape and recross in the boat of his captors, and disappeared; that some friends of Hyde nego- tiated with Reid, who paid for Hyde's crops, etc., and Hyde gave him no fur- ther trouble at that time. After a few years Ethan Allen and a party of Ad- dison and Panton settlers visited the falls and routed Reid's men and put Pangborn in possession. That about one year later Ira Allen was passing from his settlement on Onion River to Bennington, and reaching the falls on a stormy evening, he thought to stay with his old friend Pangborn. On knock- ing at his cabin door he was met by a stranger with a drawn sword and threat- ening attitude, who, after some parleying and explanations, admitted Allen and gave him a night's lodging. Allen learned that Colonel Reid had previously come on with a dozen Scotch immigrants, who had been led to believe it to be a military movement, and they kept up the regulations of a military camp, after driving off Pangborn and his associates. In the morning Allen pursued his way to Bennington, but about ten days afterward he, with one hundred men, appeared to the Scotchmen at the falls, who found resistance to be use- less and were secured, while the company under Allen's direction burned every hut that Reid had built; destroyed the grist-mill built by him, and broke the mill-stones and threw them in pieces into the river. Allen then explained to Reid's men how they had been deceived, and most of them left and settled in the valley of the Mohawk. Donald McIntosh and John Cameron remained. Joshua Hyde, who had been driven from his farm by Reid, was with Allen's men, and doubtless enjoyed the adventure. He had sold his farm, however,

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HISTORY OF ADDISON COUNTY.

and settled in Middlebury.1 In a petition to Governor Tryon by the adherents of New York in 1772 it is said that there were about fifteen families on Col- onel Reid's tract.

Nothing more is found of record in regard to the falls until July 9, 1776, when Joseph Pangborn deeded to David Remington the fifty acres given him by the proprietors of Panton. David Remington was afterward convicted of Toryism and his property taken to the use of the State, and sold by the com- missioner of confiscation to Gideon Spencer and others. Spencer became the sole owner in 1786, the consideration in the deed being £500-$1,666.

In 1777 many inhabitants left their homes upon hearing that Burgoyne was coming up the lake and the Indians and Tories of his army were. making plundering excursions all along the lake shore, and when Carleton came with his army in 1788 nearly every settler abandoned his farm and business, and the families scattered, some to Pittsford and the southern towns of Vermont, and others went back to the towns in Connecticut and Massachusetts from which they had emigrated to Vermont.

The Council of Safety sitting at Bennington on the 6th of March, 1778, is- sued a letter of instructions to Captain Ebenezer Allen 2 to raise a sufficient number of men and proceed to New Haven Fort, where he was to take post and send out scouts to reconnoitre the woods to watch the movements of the en- emy and report them to this council or the officer commanding the Northern Department (probably at Rutland). They say, "as there are some few inhab- itants north of the fort, should you judge them to be disaffected to the interest of the United States of America, you will confine him or them and secure his or their estate for the use of this State until such person or persons may be tried by a Committee of Safety next adjacent to the offender, etc."

Under date of March 19, 1778, a letter of Governor and Council, ratified by General Assembly, to Captain Thomas Sawyer, at Shelburne, congratulates him on his victory, laments the loss of Lieutenant Barnum and men,3 and says: " Viewing your dangerous and remote situation, the difficulty in rein- forcing and supplying you, do therefore direct you to retreat to the blockhouse in New Haven. Bring with you the friendly inhabitants. You are not to destroy any building, wheat or the effects. You will remain at said blockhouse until relieved by Captain Ebenezer Allen or Captain Isaac Clark."

A letter to these captains directs them to repair to his relief without loss of time ; to assist the inhabitants, and, if possible, to secure the wheat at Shel- burne, and such other effects as in their power, but not to burn any buildings or other effects.

1 It is stated that at this time Allen built a block-house fort near the falls ; the exact location is un- known. It is certain a fort was built previous to 1778 and called New Haven Fort.

2 See Governor and Council, Vol. I, p. 228.

3 Lieutenant Barnabas Barnum, of Monkton, who was surprised by a party of Indians and British soldiers, and killed.

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On May 22 following, Governor Chittenden writes to Captain Brownson that David Bradley, in behalf of the inhabitants of New Haven and Ferris- burgh, applies to this Council for liberty for their inhabitants to remain in their possessions at present, as by reason of the situation of some of the women it was impracticable for them to remove. He was directed to allow such indul- gence as necessity required.

In March, 1779, the line of the northern frontier was established at the north line of Castleton and the west and north lines of Pittsford, and all the in- habitants north of said line were directed and ordered to immediately move with their families and effects within said lines, and that the women and chil- dren go even farther south, and the men work on their farms in " collective bodies with their arms."

It is generally supposed that no inhabitants remained in the territory that is now Vergennes, from the fall of 1778 till peace was declared in 1783, when they began to return to their farms.

It was probably in the fall of 1778 that Eli Roburds and his son Durand were taken prisoners and carried from their farm (lying between G. F. O. Kim- ball's and Willard Bristol's, and extending back to the Beaver Meadow) by a band of Indians, Tories, and British soldiers, and imprisoned for three years or more. It is said that they were exchanged ; that while prisoners they were sent under guard to labor, but that Eli refused to work for the British, and was so free in his remarks on the subject that he was not allowed to leave as soon as his son.

Writers have pictured the sufferings of the prisoners thus taken from their peaceful homes to endure the hardships of a British prison ; but we should not forget the sad condition of their wives and small children, helplessly witnessing their husbands and elder sons forced away from them, while their houses were burning and everything they had that was of value being carried off by the plunderers. A more pitiful sight, indeed, it must have been to see those stricken mothers carrying their infants and leading other children, with scart clothing or food, through the woods on foot, to the southern towns in Vermont! Know- ing how dark the future and how sad the present, their courage and fortitude seem almost without a parallel in history.

After a few more years of war and suffering, the struggles of a people few in numbers and weak in resources, against the power and wealth of Great Britain, brought triumph and peace, a result that can be explained by only one word-Providence. With returning peace the attention of the people was again turned to their personal interests; and as the obstacles to the settlement of their forsaken farms were removed they began, in 1783, to return to the new settlements.

In May, 1783, the Panton proprietors met at the inn of Captain Willard, in Pawlet, and, among other things, voted "to sequester ten acres of land, togeth-

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er with the privilege of the falls on Otter Creek, for mill building, to John Strong, lying at the northeast corner of Panton, on condition said Strong build a good saw-mill at the above mentioned place by the 20 of November, 1783, and a good grist-mill by the 20 of August, 1784, that shall run at the times above mentioned," etc. Evidently the old mills had been destroyed at this time. Spencer's lot (that was formerly given to Pangborn) of fifty acres and Strong's ten acres had not been marked out, and in 1786 it was arranged be- tween them, Spencer taking the west part up to within seven rods five links of the bridge, and Strong taking his ten acres above that point.

In March, 1784, Asa Strong, eldest son of John Strong, of Addison, Beebe Pangborn, and Elkanah Brush lived near the falls on the west side. Asa Strong's house was where the south end of the Shade Roller Company's dry house is. In this year it is said that Gideon Spencer, then living in Benning- ton, built a saw-mill, and in 1785 built a grist-mill near the middle of the chan- nel, between the island and the west shore. All above the mill, up to the land- ing above the Shade Roller Company's factory, was filled with floodwood, a part of which they had to cut out to get water for the mill. In the summer of 1784 some fourteen families settled in Willsboro, N. Y., on the patent of Wm. Gilliland, and got the lumber for the buildings at Vergennes. Donald McIn- tosh, who had been in Canada through the war, returned to his farm on Com- fort Hill about this time.

In October of this year Ethan Allen, of Bennington, deeds to Alexander and William Brush, of New Haven, six acres of the governor's lot of five hun- dred acres, in the northwest corner of New Haven, of which Allen had become the owner. Judge Roberts's present home is near the corner of the six acres.

In 1785, while New Haven retained all her territory extending to the head of the falls, the Legislature imposed a tax on New Haven to build one-half of the bridge over Otter Creek at the head of the falls, and the next spring the proprietors of New Haven, in public meeting called for that purpose-

Ist, Chose Luther Everts moderator;

2d, Voted that there be a tax of one penny on each acre of land in New Haven, for the purpose of building a bridge across Otter Creek near the falls;

3d, Chose Andrew Barton collector;

4th, Luther Everts, treasurer;

5th, Eli Roburds and William Brush a committee to oversee the building of bridge aforementioned;

6th, Chose Bezaliel Rudd, William Eno, and Robert Wood committee of inspection;

7th, Voted every common laborer should have four shillings and six pence per day, and a yoke of oxen, 2 shillings 6 pence;

8th, Voted the Committee purchase a Barrel of Rum, and more if needed for the business;

9th, Voted that every man have } pint of Rum per day;

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IOth, Voted, that the Committee purchase a Grindstone for the benefit of the workmen.

1785 .- Ethan Allen deeds to Widow Ruth Brush seven acres from the northwest corner of the governor's lot, running from the bridge in the direc- tion of the present plank road (so called) and then to the creek.

In October of this year the Legislature passed an act establishing the county of Addison from Rutland county to the Canada line, which boundaries were changed to nearly the present limits when Chittenden county was organized, in 1787. County officers were appointed in 1785 for Addison county, William Brush being one of the judges.

Timothy Rogers, of Danby, Vt., a large landholder, came into this vicinity this year. He moved in October from Button Bay to near Barnum's Falls, on Little Otter Creek. He was proprietors' clerk of Ferrisburgh; at the time of re- moving, the records of Ferrisburgh were burned. He said that he landed from his boat at the foot of the falls on a rainy evening and attempted to build a fire that they might light torches to guide the women and children to his house, but the rain put out the fire, as they supposed. He carried his goods out of the boat and left them on the shore for the night. In the morning his men told him, what proved too true, that the fire had not been put out, but had revived and spread, and burned some of his effects-among them a chest of drawers in which were all the records and public papers, as well as his private deeds for about 6,000 acres of land, and notes and bonds for about $2,000.

On the 30th of May in this year Ethan Allen was in New York city, and conversed with the French consul about a city that was to be incorporated about the falls. This was more than three years before the date of the char- ter, and is the earliest allusion to the project. At that time there could not have been twenty families on the territory.

1786 .- Gideon Spencer, of Bennington, who had already built mills on the falls, moved to Vergennes and became identified with the interests of the place, and an active and successful operator. The records show that he was engaged in building and running mills and iron works, buying and selling water power, and timber, and farming lands. He was evidently a far-seeing and sagacious man. Unfortunately for Vergennes, he encumbered most of the water power on the west side of the creek with a long lease, which is still in force. He had several sons, who became men of property and influence in the vicinity. His son Gideon, jr., lived on the farm and built the brick house afterward owned by Samuel P. Strong, and then by Samuel P. Hopkins. Soon after he came to Vergennes he built a large gambrel-roofed house on the east corner of An- drew Crady's present house lot, and kept a tavern. A fine spring of water in the street in front of his house supplied the neighborhood, until the supply was cut off by digging wells and cellars in the vicinity.

In December of this year the town plot of Ferrisburgh was surveyed by

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Timothy Rogers, surveyor, and a committee appointed for the purpose, con- sisting of Abel Thompson, Gideon Spencer, Wm. Utley, and Wm. Haight. They surveyed lots enough in the most desirable locations to give one to each proprietor, five rods by six rods; then a second division of the same number of the next most desirable lots ; then all the remainder in a third division. The " green " and public lots were designated, and the principal streets. There was a small triangular piece above and near the bridge which they called the " hand- kerchief lot," " for a gift of s'd Proprietors to any man that will settle and con- tinue the malting business on s'd lot two years, to the advantage of himself and the public." Major Wm. Goodrich accepted it and afterwards deeded it with the stills, worms, tubs, etc.

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History of Addison county Vermont, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 76

Author: Smith, H. P. (Henry Perry), 1839-1925. 1n Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y., D. Mason & co. Number of Pages: 988

Author: Smith, H. P. (Henry Perry), 1839-1925. 1n
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y., D. Mason & co.
Number of Pages: 988